A Review by 
A. D: FRASER 
AMERICAN. ANTIQUITIES.. Part 
I. Introductory. The Lithic In¬ 
dustries. By W. B. Holmes. 
Bureau of American Ethnology s 
Bulletin, Sixty. Washington; Gov¬ 
ernment Printing Office. 
S PEAKING in very general term?, 
we may say that Mr. Holmes 
has done for American arch¬ 
aeology a service similar to that 
rendered a few years ago by Prof. 
O-sbora to the study of the Conditions 
attending the human race in Europe 
{to Palaeolithic times. That is to say, 
he has expended great labor and 
thought on the collection, from wide¬ 
ly scattered and sometimes almost in¬ 
accessible sources, of all the most 
Important facts which may be Mar¬ 
shaled with a view to throwing light 
on the prehistoric cultures and. pre- 
Columbian conditions of the races in¬ 
habiting the central and northern re¬ 
gions of our continent. The difficul¬ 
ty of the ..task can hardly be over¬ 
stated. Prehistoric man in Europe 
presents a problem sufficiently com¬ 
plicated, to be sure, but it is simple 
as contrasted with Ms representative 
in America—in the present state of 
our knowledge, at least. On the con¬ 
tinent of Europe, the Culture-stations 
6f France alone, together with those 
of the northern parts of Spain and 
Italy, prestent us with what consti¬ 
tutes an almost complete picture of 
the activities of mankind in that re¬ 
gion during, let us say, the past 50,- 
000 years. Long-continued and in¬ 
tensive study, likewise, of the sur¬ 
viving human remains , and artifacts 
has been, successful in producing an 
elaborate system of chronology and 
classification; so that the modem 
European archaeologist or palaeon¬ 
tologist has now a reasonably sure 
footing of hypothesis and fact on 
which to base his researches. In the 
Western Hemisphere, on the other 
hand, the circumstances are alto¬ 
gether different. The extent of the 
territory is vast, and not until re¬ 
cently has the subject of preMsforic 
archaeology, met with the attention 
that its importance would seem td 
call for. Furthermore, an additional 
element fef difficulty and often con¬ 
fusion is introduced into 'the study 
by reason of the survival of so many 
ancient American types of culture 
up through historical times, and that 
too in an fihriest Unaltered state. The 
proper disentangling of the threads 
©f evidence Is surely a Colossal task; 
Nevertheless, Mr. Holmes has been 
successful in putting into the hands 
of the student and the general read¬ 
er a volume containing a highly sat¬ 
isfactory treatment of the subject— 
a work wMch marks a definite bpoeh 
in American prehistoric studies. The 
book, large as it is, is intendld as an 
introduction only, and is to be fol¬ 
lowed, as the preface informs us, by 
a second volume, to be devoted ^ ex¬ 
clusively to the Implements, utensils, 
and other minor artifacts of stone.” 
The southern limit of the territory 
covered in the present work is the 
Rio Grande; so that the United 
States, Canada, and Alaska alone are 
taken into consideration. It is 
somewhat disappointing that, owing 
to this selection, the Writer does not 
furnish us with a description of the 
great Central American Maya civil¬ 
ization, the knowledge of which is 
being rapidly disseminated through 
the efforts of the Maya society. - 
Not the least interesting part of 
the volume is that which treats of 
the probable antiquity of mari in 
America. The autochthonous the¬ 
ory—or the supposition that the hu¬ 
man race originated in this continent 
—is now almost a dead letter, and is 
dismissed in a few sentences. Com¬ 
mencing, however, With the premise 
that all American prehistoric cul¬ 
tures as yet studied appear to belong 
to the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, 
type, the author proceeds to examine 
the evidence connected with certain 
important discoveries which would 
seem to argue for a high antiquity 
of man in America. In particular, 
he investigates the conditions attend¬ 
ing the discovery of (a) the Cala¬ 
veras skull, found in California, and 
said to have been recovered from 
Tertiary gravels at a depth of 130 
feet; (b) the Lansing skull, dug Up 
in the State of Kansas in 1002 from 
under twenty feet of undisturbed 
silt; ( C ) a fragment of a stone pestle 
found embedded in gravels underly- ' 
mg the lava-cap of the Table Moun¬ 
tain; (d) the “Nampa Image," a 
small figurine, said to have been 
brought up from some ancient depos¬ 
its in Nampa, Idaho. Rut the con¬ 
clusion reached by Mr. Holmes in 
each and every case is that the testi¬ 
mony, while worthy of the most 
careful consideration, is hardly con¬ 
vincing. in this connection he well 
remarks: 
The superficial formations from 
which the evidence has been and 
must be derived are treacherous 
of , the records entrusted 
cmJSSSr keepi ^8'- The. waters un- 
C £7 e \t tr A rts P ort ’ Intermingle and re- 
wP° sK the tpces of man’s presence; 
ice scores deeply into the surface, 
destroying the normal se¬ 
quence, the winds sweep the sands 
eattnn eC h» th i e sem *> lance of stratifi- 
b «rying and uncovering and 
- again . «*e relics of all 
imposing thus on the un¬ 
wary student false and conflicting 
